Trapan

Quick meaning: Trapan is a noun meaning An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick.

Meaning

An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick.

More Meanings

1. To catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; to ensnare, to trap.
2. (figurative) To trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim; to defraud, to ensnare, to entrap, to swindle.
3. (probably originally thieves' cant, archaic or obsolete) A person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim; a fraudster, a swindler, a trickster.
4. Alternative spelling of trepan (“surgical instrument used to remove a small section of bone, usually from the skull; tool used to bore through rock, etc.”).
5. Alternative spelling of trepan (“to cut through bone, usually the skull, using a trepan (etymology 2, noun sense); to create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material”)

Example Sentences

Each of 'em has a ſev'ral Gin, / To catch Intelligences in. / Some by the Noſe vvith fumes trapan 'em, / As Dunſtan did the Devil's Grannum.

"I cannot think," he said, after a moment's pause, "that the fellow means to trepan us; and in any event, I trust we should have no difficulty in forcing the door, or otherwise making an escape.[…]"

Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept this man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, […]

As for all other Pretences, they are nothing but Death and Damnation, dreſſed up in Fair VVords and Falſe Shevvs; nothing but Ginns, and Snares, and Trepans for Souls; Contrived by the Devil, and Managed by ſuch as the Devil ſets on VVork.

Word Forms

• trapans
• trapanning
• trapanned

Synonyms for trapan

Depending on context, synonyms include bunco-steerer, charlatan, cheat, cheater, chiseler, cozener.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include trepan, trap, trepanning, trepaning, traps, trapping.

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